OBIEE 11g Upgrade Consideration

OBIEE 11G Upgrade- Considerations

Januvary 2012 --Imran rahman

Considerations

§  With the latest release of OBIEE 11g (11.1.1.5), Oracle Business Intelligence Technology Foundation become best in class in SMB as well as Enterprise organization

§  Some new key features that will benefit OBIEE guys in pursuing for OBIEE 11g Upgrade

§  Upgrade of an existing OBIEE 10g system to OBIEE 11g requires careful planning, preparation, setup and testing.

§  Upgrade of RPD (Repository/Business Model Metadata)

§  Upgrade of Webcat (User Interface Metadata)

§  Upgrade of BI Pub (BI Publisher)

§  Upgrade of BI Security

§  Upgrade of BI Delivers (iBots/Agents)

Steps for OBIEE 11g Upgrade

§  OBIEE 11g Upgrade in non-invasive to the current production setup, as it does not overwrite the existing 10g architecture

§  OBIEE 11g will be installed a-fresh on Dev/QA and Production instances

§  Pre-requisites checklist

§  Installation architecture – decisions

§  Production architecture – decisions

§  Installation of OBIEE 11g on Dev/QA Environment

§  Upgrading the OBIEE Metadata Repository and Web Catalog

§  Importing Security Credentials (Users/Groups) Setup

§  Modifying Security Set Up as per 11g Architecture

§  Testing the installation set up and all components

§  Testing the OBIEE Metadata repository consistency

§  Validating ‘select’ OBIEE 10g reports for any errors

§  Validating Security Setup and Users/Groups Mapping

§  Installation of OBIEE 11g on Production System

§  Code Migration to Production

§  Smoke Testing on Production System

§  Availability of OBIEE 11g on Production

Analyze Existing 10g For Upgrade

§  Analyze existing 10g System on following key things

§  Hardware including Sizing

§  Operating System

§  Security data model

§  RPD Size

§  Web Catalog Size

§  Reports – Majority views used (Ex: Pivot, Charts etc)

§  Custom UI configuration (Style Sheets / Logos / Messages / Web Templates)

§  iBots if any

§  Total number of users and Concurrent users of the Application

§  External Systems involved for Security of BPEL

§  Warehouse Database Schema and Scheduler Schema

§  Configuration Files (instanceconfig.xml, NQSConfig.INI, etc)

§  Compare existing 10g Environment with System Requirements and Certification documentation of 11g

§  Custom Date formats

Pre-Upgrade Steps

§  Install and Configure OBIEE 11g System

§  System Requirements and Supported Platforms

§  Sizing Considerations based on Expert recommendations

§  Configure and Setup Out of the Box OBIEE 11g System with Sample Application Repository and Web Catalog

§  Validate the Application after installation

§  Configure specific parameters (OPMN.xml) for the data sources (Oracle, SQL Server, Teradata etc)

§  Configure specific parameters for BI Publisher (xmlp-server-config.xml)

§  Configure 11g specific tags in instanceconfig.xml

§  Separate Connection Pools for Queries and Init Blocks in Physical Layer of the OBIEE RPD

§  Invalid Objects are deleted

Optimize Existing 10g For Upgrade

§  Identify Superfluous, redundant and unused content

§  Web Catalog Objects:

§  Reports

§  Dashboards & Dashboard Prompts

§  Shared Folders & User Folders

§  Web Groups

§  RPD Objects:

§  Physical Layer Objects

§  BMM Layer Objects

§  Presentation Layer Objects

§  Initialization Blocks

§  Variables

§  Users

§  Security Groups

§  Consistency Check before Upgrade

§  Leading/Trailing Spaces on Column Names in OBIEE Repository Not Supported in 11g

Test Plan for Upgrade

§  Perform a test upgrade – On a smaller Catalog with few selected critical Reports/Dashboards

§  Identifying unknown issues during Actual Upgrade

§  How does the new system look like after upgrade

§  Define different phases/stages for upgrade process

§  Upgrade Schemas (Scheduler)

§  Configure Connections

§  Upgrade Repository

§  Upgrade Web Catalog

§  Upgrade BI Publisher Catalog

§  Upgrade BI Publisher Scheduler

§  Perform testing and validate results at the start and end of each stage

§  Validate iBots/Agents on new Schema – Fix issues manually if any

§  Check TNS Entries for Oracle, opmn.xml for Teradata, Correct version of Essbase client

§  Fix all Consistency Errors, Configure Connection Pools

§  Manually fix reports/dashboards for known issues

§  Configure the parameters in xmlp-server-config.xml

§  Validate the Scheduler reports

Post Upgrade Considerations

§  Implement New and Enhanced 11g Functionalities

§  Support for additional data sources (Ex: Essbase, Oracle TimesTen, Hyperion Financial Management, ADF, SAP BW Native, OBI Metadata Web Service etc)

§  Hierarchy Objects in Presentation Layer (Analysis)

§  Support Unbalanced Hierarchies (Ragged & Skipped)

§  Support Parent-Child Hierarchies

§  Delta Code Migration as against full RPD migration after initial go-live

§  Multi-Currency Support

§  Logical Source determination is no longer Random

§  Upgrade MUD Repositories Manually (Use ONLY Command line upgrade utility – “obieerpdmigrateutil”)

§  Use ONLY Upgrade Assistant to perform the upgrade of Production Repository and Web Catalog

§  Configure Essbase specific database features corresponding to Environment Variables

§  Fix Localized Text for Users “My Folder” objects

§  Siebel Workflow actions are not upgraded – Perform this task manually

§  RPD & Web Catalog deployments now controlled using FMW Control

§  Security

§  Doesn’t allow Blank Repository Password

§  Groups in 10g transform to Application Roles in 11g

§  Users/Application Roles are not managed Externally

§  Default Cluster Configuration even in Single Server Environment

§  Pivot table Calculated Items needs to be fixed manually

§  Custom Styles and Skins are not upgraded, Have to be implemented manually again in 11g

More detail about 11.1.1.6

New Features with OBIEE 11.1.1.6

by Imran Rahman Here is a quick list of the many new features available with Oracle Business Intelligence 11.1.1.6 Installation The installer for the Oracle BI client tools now also installs Catalog Manager. Ability to Limit and Offset Rows Returned You can use the FETCH and OFFSET clauses to constrain the number of rows returned by the SELECT statement and to offset the returned rows by a given number. Both clauses are optional and can be used together, or independently. Identify Query Candidates with Oracle BI Summary Advisor If you are running Oracle Business Intelligence on the Oracle Exalytics Machine, you can use the Oracle BI Summary Advisor feature to identify which aggregates will increase query performance. Summary Advisor intelligently recommends an optimal list of aggregate tables based on query patterns that will achieve maximum query performance gain while meeting specific resource constraints. Integrate the Administration Tool with a Third-Party Source Control ManagementSystem As an alternative to using a MUD environment, you can choose to save your repository in MDS XML format and integrate the Administration Tool with a third-party source control management system. Streamlined MUD Merge Process Repository developers using a multiuser development (MUD) environment can now merge and publish changes in a single step, rather than merging local changes and then publishing changes as two separate steps. They can also perform subset refreshes to perform incremental local merges with the master repository. Automated Repository Patching Process You can now use an option in the patchrpd command-line utility to enable automated patching without prompting for user input. In addition, new patching-specific rules are applied during patch merges. Support for Aggregate Persistence in a Cluster You can now use the aggregate persistence feature in a clustered environment. FIRST_PERIOD and LAST_PERIOD Time Series Functions You can now use the FIRST_PERIOD and LAST_PERIOD functions to compute the first and last value of an expression using the chronological key rather than the primary level key. Ability to Print the Physical and Business Model Diagrams You can now use Print Preview and Print to view and print the Physical and Business Model Diagrams in the Administration Tool. New Configuration Elements for Prompts and Custom Links You can use new configuration elements to affect the following: - How users work with prompts on dashboard pages - How you add custom links for users Changes in the Interface for Fusion Middleware Control Various changes were made in the user interface for Fusion Middleware Control: - View System Component Availability - Identify Single Points of Failure - Configure Primary and Secondary Instances - View Log Information, Error Messages, and Alerts - Log File Rotation Policy and Specifying Log Levels Enhancements to Full-Text Search The way that you configure for users to perform a full-text search has been enhanced. Configuration Settings for Analyses and Dashboards New configuration settings are available for working with analyses and dashboards. Configuration Settings in NQSConfig.INI The NQSConfig.INI file for the Oracle BI Server now includes the settings that are described in the following sections. Some of these sections have enhanced documentation from the previous release: - "MAX_EXPANDED_SUBQUERY_PREDICATES" - "FMW_UPDATE_ROLE_AND_USER_REF_GUIDS" - "SUMMARY_STATISTICS_LOGGING" - "SUMMARY_ADVISOR_TABLE_NAME" New Catalog and Home and Header Privileges These privileges determine which users can search the catalog, what functionality displays in the Oracle BI EE global header, who can access the Home Page and Catalog page, and who can see custom links in the global header and Getting Started area of the Home Page. Auto-Complete Functionality for Prompts This release contains auto-complete functionality for prompts. When enabled by the administrator, auto-complete suggests and highlights matching prompt values as the user types in the prompt selection field. Auto-complete can be excluded or included on dashboards, and users can turn auto-complete off for their accounts. Optional Apply and Reset Buttons for Prompts You can show or hide a prompt’s apply and reset buttons. If the designer chooses to hide the apply button, then the specified prompt value is immediately applied to the dashboard or analysis. Miscellaneous Prompts Enhancements The following prompts enhancements were added: - The prompt Reset button now provides three reset options: Reset to last appliedvalues, Reset to default values, and Clear All. - In the "Dashboard builder", the dashboard designer can add the Edit and Copy links to the dashboard’s prompts. These links will display at run time, and users with the proper privileges can click them to edit the prompt or copy the prompt’s link. - The row-based layout prompt option was added to the prompt editor’s "Definition pane". As a result, you can now specify a row-based or column-based layout for your prompts. Favorites This release introduces Favorites, which allows you to bookmark as favorites the catalog objects that you view regularly or want to view again at another time. You can use the "Manage Favorites dialog" to organize your favorites into categories, and you can view your favorites list and open your favorite objects from the global header’s Favorites menu. Customizable Global Header and Get Started .... Section of the Home Page The order of the links on the global header can now be customized, and links to external locations can be added to the global header. The Get Started... section of the home page can also be customized to meet the informational needs of the users. The Administrator implements these customizations and when users log into Oracle BI EE, they will see these customizations. Oracle BI Client Installer Option Added to the Home Page A link to the Oracle BI Client Installer has been added to the Download BI DesktopTools option, which is located in the Getting Started... section of the Home Page. User’s with the proper privilege can click this option to download and install the Business Intelligence Administration Tool and the Oracle Business Intelligence JobManager. Integrated Full-Text Search Capabilities This release provides a fully integrated full-text search. This search is available after the administrator integrates Oracle BI Enterprise Edition with Oracle Secure Enterprise Search. This method of searching allows the user to find objects by searching on their attributes such as author and column name. Ability to Set Accessibility Mode in the Sign In Page In this release, the "Sign In page" has been enhanced to include the Accessibility Modebox, which allows you to specify whether you want content for Oracle BI EE to be rendered in a browser in a way that facilitates the use of a screen reader. Enhancement to Oracle Scorecard and Strategy Management This release includes the addition of a contribution wheel diagram to a strategy tree, which allows you to view an objective and its supporting child objectives and KPIs hierarchically in a circular diagram. Enhancements to Map Views In this release, map views have been enhanced in various ways: - You can include non-BI layers on a map view - You can use the marquee zoom feature to zoom into a specific area of the map View Enhancements to Selections The release includes the following enhancement to selections: - The ability to include selected members in hierarchy selections steps that are based on family relationships. - The addition of Siblings of and Leaves of options in family relationships. - If the content designer adds a selection step that includes a condition with a qualified data reference (QDR), the QDR now displays in the Selection Steps pane. - The "All X values where Y = values" condition type was added. This condition type is available for attribute columns and hierarchical columns. The Column field was added to the New Condition Step dialog for this condition type. Enhancements to Views This release includes the following enhancements to views: - The ability to rename views and compound layouts. - The Selection Steps view was added. This view when added to an analysis, displays the selection steps in effect for the analysis. Enhancements to Tables and Pivot Tables In this release, tables and pivot tables have been enhanced to allow you to: - Select the measure on which to sort a column in a pivot table. - Specify how columns that are added to an analysis from the "Analysis editor: Criteria tab" after displaying the analysis results are handled. - Additional interactions on the right-click menu, for example, Include column, Show Running Sum, interactions for selection steps, and so on. - The ability to specify which interactions (for example, Drill) are available when you right-click in an analysis or a dashboard at run time. BI Mobile - Balanced Scorecards now truly render on the mobile device (using HTML5 visualisations). - Mobile support for iOS5 BI Publisher - "Schedule Triggers" to conditionally execute scheduled jobs. - Enhanced parameters and list of values (check boxes, radio buttons, "Search" for long list of values, option to hide the "Apply" button) - Display HTML formatted data in your report - Configure different servers for authentication/authorization Security - New "SQL Group Lookup Authenticator" to enable authentication against LDAP combined with authorization from a database - Simplified SSL/SSO setup Platform/Database Support - New support for Informix 11.5, Sybase ASE 15, and Netezza 6 data sources - Support for both WebLogic 10.3.5 and 10.3.6 - Support for new browsers: IE9, Chrome 12, and Firefox 6 - Support for Solaris 11